The Nintendo Switch dominated hardware sales in the United States throughout 2020. It easily outperformed its next-generation competitors on Xbox One and PlayStation 4, and continues to outperform the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X / S due to supply restrictions . Nintendo’s hybrid home / portable console was the best hardware of the year, as well as in December, according to industry monitoring company The NPD Group.
“The Nintendo Switch was the best-selling hardware platform in units and dollars not only in December 2020, but throughout the year,” said Mat Piscatella, an analyst at NPD. “Annual sales in dollars for Nintendo Switch hardware were the second highest for an individual platform in a single calendar year in the history of the United States. Only the 2008 dollar sales of the Nintendo Wii were higher. “
The PlayStation 5, which is still difficult to find online or in stores, also sold well.
“PlayStation 5 ended 2020 as the second best-selling console in dollar sales, while PlayStation 4 ranked second in units sold,” said Piscatella. “PlayStation 5 set a new record dollar sales for PlayStation hardware every first December at PlayStation platform retail.”
Microsoft said the Xbox Series X / S is the best release in Xbox history.
But the success of the hardware from Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft pushed the category to levels close to the record.
“Dollar sales of hardware reached $ 1.35 billion in December 2020,” said Piscatella. “This is a 38% increase compared to a year ago, and the highest total for a month in December since the $ 1.37 billion achieved in December 2013. Annual hardware dollar sales totaled $ 5.3 billion , 35% above 2019, and the maximum since $ 5.6 billion was reached in 2011. ”
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